‘Dead to Me’s Season 3 Ending, Explained: Unpacking Judy’s Fate and That Chaotic Cliffhanger

Warning: Dead to Me Season 3 spoilers ahead.

If the final 10 episodes of Dead to Me took you on an emotional roller coaster, made you ugly cry, and left you screaming at your TV, join the club!

The Netflix comedy — starring Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, and James Marsden — returned for its third and final season on November 27. And if you devoured Dead to Me‘s final hours, there’s a good chance you’re simultaneously grieving, joyful, and screaming “WTF” over the sheer audacity of that final cliffhanger.

Season 3, Episode 10 of Dead to Me, aptly titled “We’ve Reached The End,” was a 39-minute whirlwind of emotions. Our gals Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini) left us with a whole lot to process, so we figured you might be in need of a detailed episode recap. Read on for Decider’s breakdown of Dead to Me‘s Season 3 ending. But be warned, major spoilers for the Dead to Me series finale are ahead. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…twice!

Dead to Me Season 3 Ending Explained: Series Finale Recap

The penultimate episode of Dead to Me Season 3 ended with Jen and Judy road-tripping off into the unknown while Judy’s mom (wearing Judy’s police-issued tracking device around her ankle) headed to San Fransisco to give the appearance that Judy was at a three-week clinical trial. The Season 3 finale picks up right where we left off: Jen and Judy are driving on the open road, Judy’s snacking on Doritos, and the pals are giving each other outlaw names. (Judy Five Fingers and Bitch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, FYI.)

After a much-needed giggle fest, Jen tells Judy the plan: “We have three weeks — length of clinical trial — so we’re just going to relax, and you’re going to drink, and I’m going to watch, and rinse and repeat.” Judy asks what happens after the three weeks is up, and Jen says she doesn’t want to think about it, all she knows is Judy isn’t going to jail. Because Jen is pregnant, her bladder is a nightmare for roadtripping, so she pulls over to the side of the road to pee and things spiral out of control. Two Greek mafia men arrive — the same guys Jen saw at Glen’s hotel — and they ask Judy for the money that Steve stole. She tells them she spent it on her treatment and asks them to shoot her since she has terminal cancer and is dying anyways. They offer condolences, and she tells them she needs her medication from the car. Instead, she grabs a gun, makes them get in their car, and shoots their tires flat. Jen and Judy make their getaway and safely arrive in Mexico, at Steve and Judy’s old vacation home. They fear there’s an intruder inside, but it’s just a cat — which, as a reminder, Jen hates. “FUCK YOU! NO!” she screams. “Can you please get it out of here before it murders us?” Judy lets the cat out on the balcony, they take in the stunning views of the water, and the vacation begins.

Jen and Judy relive Season 3’s opening scene and relax on the beach, chatting about boys, weirdly-shaped shells, and life. At one point, Jen says she has déjà vu and Judy tells her it’s a good sign. “Déjà vu is just your brain reminding you to remember,” she explains. We speed through three weeks of beachy bliss filled with girls’ nights, bonfires, and sunset strolls, until one morning Jen wakes up alone with their stray cat in bed next to her. She yells for Judy, frantically searching for her and worried something happened. Judy walks inside and reveals she just took the boat out on water to see the sun rise. Judy asks Jen to go out on the water and takes her to the garage to get a life vest. When she opens the garage door, Steve’s ’66 Mustang (in pristine condition and definitely not looking like it rammed into and killed Jen’s husband) was staring them in the face. “It’s not the Mustang, right?” Jen asks. “It is. I found a key hidden in one of my paintings and couldn’t figure out why Steve put it in there,” Judy explained. She apologizes profusely to Jen and even offers her a golf club in case she wants to “bash the shit out of it,” but Jen says, “It’s just a car. It’s a really, really nice car.” Judy tells her it’s OK to hate the car, and Jen says, “How could I hate it? It brought you to me.” (PAUSE FOR TEARS)

And we’re back! While Jen and Judy are bonding, Judy tells Jen she used to love boating, and when she was out on the water she felt truly free. She recalled she used to go boating with a man (who was possibly her father) when she was a kid, until he and her mom got in fight and he got in boat and left forever. “Sometimes I like to imagine he’s still out there, sailing free as a bird,” she says. (This may not seem important now, but hold onto it. It’ll come in handy later.)

With only a few days remaining until their three-week vacation is up, Jen thinks of ways she can stay with Judy for however long she has left. Judy tells her she has to go back to her life and makes her promise she’ll tell Ben he’s the father of her baby. When Jen starts unexpectedly bleeding, Judy takes her to see a doctor who explains the blood is the result of a condition called placenta previa, but that her baby GIRL!!!!! is very healthy. That night, while eating an authentic Mexican feast, Ben calls and Jen finally tells him she’s pregnant. His reaction? “Seriously? That’s amazing!” Later that night, things get even better for Jen when she learns FBI Agent Glen is dead and police think the Greek mafia killed him AND Steve. She tells Judy they can go back home now that they’re not wanted women, but as a flustered Judy walks to grab a glass of water she collapses in pain. 

Jen makes Judy comfortable in bed, and Judy reveals she’s been in a lot more pain than she’s let on the past few weeks. She tells Jen she’s not going back home, but urges her to leave. After digesting the thought, Jen says, “I guess that’s fine. I mean, it’s not that far. I could come see you on weekends.” And Judy promises she’ll visit, too. “I’ve had the best time, Jen,” she says, sobbing. “I’ve had the best time with you…You filled the hole in my heart.” Jen starts bawling, too, and says, “I love you, too. So so much. You’ve changed my life.” (PAUSE FOR TEARS)

The two spend the night hugging and watching Spanish TV in bed, but when Jen wakes up in the morning, Judy is gone. She finds a note from Judy and her bracelet on her bedside table, but before she opens the note, the vacation home cat meows at the door. Jen gets out of bed to let him in, and when she looks outside, she sees a boat on the water and realizes Judy went out to sea on the boat. Jen can always imagine she’s still out there, “sailing free as a bird.”

In the next scene, Jen is driving back home in Steve’s ’66 Mustang (yes, the same car that killed her husband!). In a twist, JUDY — the same Judy we just thought died in that boat — is sitting beside her in the passenger seat. “You know, I wasn’t sure you were going to come back,” Jen says. “I told you I wasn’t gonna leave you,” Judy replies. Jen tells her she understands why she loves that car so much, and Judy says, “I’m so glad it’s yours now.” For a moment, it seems everything is fine, but after Jen thanks Judy for the car, she breaks down in tears and the camera shows an empty passenger seat. Judy’s gone, and we realize she was never in the car in the first place. Jen was just imagining her, so we can assume she died out on the boat. (In this moment there’s also a slim chance that Jen simply said goodbye to a living Judy and headed back home, but that theory becomes less and less likely as the episode progresses. And if Judy was still alive when Jen left, it’s clear she doesn’t have long.)

As Jen drives home sobbing, we learn she took home Sammy, the stray cat that Judy loved so much. The camera cuts to her hands on wheel, and she’s also wearing the bracelet Judy left her. She arrives to the church for her son’s Holy Harmonies recital and walks in to see the thousand paper cranes Judy folded during her treatment hanging from the ceiling. As the kids perform “Get Happy,” Jen takes in the stunning scene, touches a crane, cries some more, and joins her family. Charlie says he’s sorry and hugs her, and in another twist, BEN shows up! He says Judy invited him, and he touches Jen’s stomach to say hi to their baby. He asks if Judy is there, and Jen looks up at the cranes and says, “I think so.” (PAUSE FOR TEARS)

After some time has passed, we see Jen return to her grief circle, where they’re discussing the nature of loss and grief. She introduces the group to her daughter, Joey, who’s wrapped in Judy’s blanket. The name Joey prompts a hilarious conversation on why Jen didn’t name her Judy, and she explains, “That would be weird! This isn’t a Hallmark movie! OK?”

The final shot of the episode shows Jen sitting outside feeding her and Ben’s baby, while Ben and two boys are swimming in pool. She glances at the door to Judy’s old room in the pool house, and Ben comes over to chat. “I don’t want to sounds like a cheeseball, but when I lost Steve I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again, because the feeling’s so heavy, you know?” Ben says. “But when I think about what my life is now, what our life is, it’s like more than I deserve, you know?” He tells Jen he’s made a lot of mistakes and she says she loves him anyways. He tells her he loves her, too, even though she’s “basically perfect,” to which she jokingly replies, “Oh god. Have you met me?!”

In true cheeseball fashion, Ben sticks his hand out and says, “No! Hi, I’m Ben Wood.” Jen tells him she just got déjà vu, and that it means her brain is reminding her to remember. She looks at her daughter, at Sammy clawing the pool house door,at the boys in the pool, and back at Ben, then says, “Ben? I have to tell you something.”

Though it’s unclear what that something is, we can assume she’s about to come clean about everything, including Steve’s death. AHHHHHHHH! Are you sure there isn’t a Season 4, Netflix?!